The Jealous Type
by rubycaspar
Summary: Potential spoilers for Captain America: The Winter Soldier (but very slight). The Avengers unwind after the events of the Winter Soldier, but Steve finds himself dwelling on something that happened between him and Natasha on the op, and wants to come clean to Clint. His confession doesn't go quite the way he expects.


Disclaimer – I own none of the Marvel franchise.

So this is a new one for me – I've written one Clint/Natasha (very) AU story in the past, but apart from that I've not posted anything in this fandom. This little scene came into my head months ago, though, and I've been trying to get it finished for far too long. I hope you enjoy it – let me know what you think.

Oh, and of course – there may be some slight potential spoilers for Captain America 2 in here, so read with caution.

**The Jealous Type**

There were six superheroes in one room, which in anyone's book should really be a recipe for disaster. It wasn't though. It was… oddly domestic.

Steve was sat at one end of a long leather couch; Natasha was sitting next to him, and Clint was on the other side of her. Thor was stretched out on one of the other couches, and Tony and Bruce sat on a third. _The Godfather _was playing on a TV screen which was, basically, the size of a wall, and having watched quite a few movies with certain members of this group before, Steve could say that it was the most engrossed in a movie he'd ever seen them.

It _was_ good, and he was trying to pay attention, but his thoughts kept drifting. It was rare that all six of them spent this amount of time together (to be honest, the last time had probably been shawarma), and while it was nice and all Steve knew that _he_ was the reason they'd all suddenly converged on Stark Tower (Avenger Tower, Tony was trying to get them to call it. Just no.). They were here because they were worried about him after the events of the last few days, and he did appreciate it, especially after his spectacular bust up with Fury… it was nice to be reminded that he didn't technically need SHIELD to be part of a team.

Natasha shifted slightly next to him. Her leg was propped up on the coffee table in front of her, and she slowly bent it and straightened it out again. Steve watched her face – she didn't so much as wince, even though he knew it must be causing her a lot of pain. Natasha healed fast, but not as fast as he did, and her leg was still bad. He couldn't admit to feeling guilty about her injury – he knew Natasha would smack him upside the head if he tried to apologise – but she had been with him every step of the way when everything went to hell, and he did feel bad. And grateful. It would have sucked to go through all of that alone.

Clint sat forward and, without a word, gently lifted Natasha's foot off the table and placed and a cushion underneath it. He sat back without even looking at her, but Steve saw the flash of gratitude in her eyes, and noticed the way she shifted slightly closer to him as he settled back against the cushions.

Steve smiled slightly to himself. Clint and Natasha weren't exactly the most demonstrative couple in the world (in fact it had taken him a couple of months to confirm that they were even together) but there was a really deep bond there, an unspoken trust and understanding that only came from years of watching each other's backs. Steve could only hope that he'd have something like that one day.

He glanced at them sideways, thinking back suddenly to what had happened at the mall a couple of days before. When Natasha had kissed him. She hadn't mentioned it or even acknowledged it in any way since it had happened, and Steve had followed her lead – after all, it had only been to maintain a cover, it hadn't _meant _anything – but he found himself wondering if Clint knew about it. Had Natasha told him? He didn't think so, because Clint was Clint, and (like Tony) one of his favourite pastimes was winding up Steve. There was no way he would have stayed quiet about something like that.

Which meant Natasha hadn't said anything. Steve realised that he felt uncomfortable with Clint not knowing about the kiss – he always imagined there were no secrets between Clint and Natasha, and he didn't like causing an exception to that rule, even if (as he suspected) Natasha was doing it to save him from the teasing. Which was odd, really, since Natasha certainly teased him enough too – especially about his love life, or lack thereof.

Well, Steve would just have to tell him. He didn't like keeping secrets from his friends and was rubbish at it anyway. It was just a question of when and how – he certainly wasn't going to just blurt it out in front of the rest of them.

Steve tried to concentrate on the movie again, but found he was dwelling more and more on the kiss, and feeling more uncomfortable about the secrecy with every passing minute. Keeping it a secret just made it seem like it meant something, and it honestly hadn't – sure, Natasha was a great dame, but Steve didn't think of her that way at all.

Luckily, an opportunity to speak to Clint came sooner than expected. About half an hour after Steve started stewing about it, Clint noticed that Natasha had finished her beer. "You want another one?" He asked her quietly.

She nodded, and Clint stood up and headed for the bar in the corner. Steve sat undecided for a moment, but the others were all engrossed in the movie, and the sooner he got it over with, the better.

He got up as quietly as he could and followed Clint over to the bar. He glanced over his shoulder as he rounded the counter; no one was looking at them.

"Hey Cap," Clint said as he pulled two beers out of the cooler. "You wanna beer?"

He didn't, but now that he was there he didn't know where to start. "Sure, why not?" He said, just for something to say.

Clint handed him one of the beers and grabbed another one from the cooler.

"Thanks," Steve said.

"No problem." Clint wasn't even looking at Steve, just casually opening the beers he'd got for him and Natasha.

Steve looked one more time to make sure no one was paying attention. "Hey Clint?" He said before he could stop himself. "Can I… I need to talk to you about something."

Clint looked up. "Something wrong?"

Moment of truth. "Yeah… I mean, no. I just need to… tell you something." Steve stammered to a stop, and Clint frowned slightly. Steve took a deep breath and ploughed on. "When we were on the op – I mean Natasha and me – when we were… there were some HYDRA agents chasing us through a mall. And it was crowded and we wanted to blend in and…"

He trailed off again and Clint's frown deepened. "What?" He prompted.

"We kissed," Steve blurted out. "Natasha and me. She kissed me and I… well, I kissed her back."

Clint's frown was gone, his face was completely blank. Steve waited a beat for him to say something, but he didn't even move.

"It was only to throw them off, it didn't mean anything, but I… I wanted to tell you," he continued in a rush. "I didn't want you not knowing about it."

There. He'd said his piece, and he didn't have anything else to say, and the point was it was now out there, no longer a secret. And he felt so much better for it already.

Clint had remained very still throughout his speech, but he moved now. He turned away from Steve and very carefully placed the two beers he held on the bar counter. The clunking noise they made as they were set down sounded unnaturally loud to Steve.

Clint turned back to him and folded his arms. His face was still blank; Steve had no idea what he was thinking. "You kissed Natasha?"

"Well she was the…" Clint raised an eyebrow at Steve's denial, and Steve's voice trailed off. He swallowed convulsively – he didn't get what the blank look on Clint's face meant. "Yeah I did."

"On the lips?" Clint asked.

Steve blinked in surprise. "I… yes," he said. "Of course on the lips." It was like being in high school or something – Steve smiled a bit at the thought.

The smile snapped Clint out of his statue-like state, but not in a good way. He dropped his arms to his sides – Steve couldn't help but notice that his hands were clenched in fists – and stepped up closer to Steve. Steve had almost a foot of height on Clint, but he stepped back quickly, not liking the look in his eyes one bit.

"You think this is funny?" Clint demanded. "You have the gall to stand there and tell me that you _kissed _Natasha, my girlfriend, my partner, the woman I love – that you kissed her, _on the lips_, no less – and you think it's _funny_?"

Steve gaped at him for a second, completely shocked. He'd never expected Clint to react like this. He'd expected teasing, _lots _of teasing, but not… _anger_. But that's what it was – Clint was furious. His voice had risen with every word, and Steve was sure the others must be watching them.

Steve stammered, completely lost for what to say. "I… Clint… I'm…"

There was a sudden deafening silence in the room as the movie was paused – Steve didn't look round at his other teammates though, not needing to see their gawking faces. He kept his eyes on Clint. You never took your eyes off your opponent.

Jeez, when had he started thinking of Clint as an _opponent_? This was ridiculous. There was no reason for Clint to be angry with him, or jealous, or whatever this was. He'd never expected Clint to be the jealous type… but… Steve swallowed again as he realised that maybe _this _was why Natasha hadn't told him about the kiss. Maybe she knew what his reaction would be, and decided he was better off not knowing. And now Steve had gone and blown it.

Damnit, she was going to _kill _him.

Clint had been staring at him with a thunderous look on his face, but as Steve watched he took a deep breath and seemed to compose himself. He didn't look _calm_, exactly, but no longer looked like he was going to take a swing at Steve. Which was an improvement.

"You know what's going to have to happen, right?" Clint said in a clipped voice. "There's only one thing we can do."

Visions of sparring rings and shootouts, each more ludicrous than the next, filled Steve's head, and he shook his head a little to try and clear them. "Clint…"

"You're going to have to kiss me too."

Steve blinked. Hard. "_What_?"

Clint shrugged, as if he'd suggested nothing out of the ordinary. "We need to balance it out," he said, in a slightly more level tone than before. "If we've both kissed you it's not a big deal, but if it's only Natasha…"

Steve couldn't believe what he was hearing. Clint had to be messing with him. "Clint, I'm not gonna kiss you," he said.

Clint's expression snapped back into stormy, and his hands back into fists. "Oh I see, so it's only Natasha you want to kiss?" He demanded, his voice rising again. "You have feelings for her?"

"What? No!" Steve exclaimed.

"Well if it really didn't mean anything, then you wouldn't care about kissing me as well," Clint spat out, glaring at him.

"I…" Steve's voice trailed off as Clint just narrowed his eyes at him. He swallowed, again, and couldn't help but glance at Clint's lips. Oh god. He was actually going to have to do this, wasn't he? It wasn't that he had a problem kissing another guy, but it was that it was _Clint_, and oh _god_ the others were never going to let him forget this. Tony probably had his stupid phone out ready to record it.

Steve wasn't going to look and see.

Okay. Okay, he could do this. It was just a kiss. It didn't mean anything. Just a kiss.

Clint started laughing.

There was no in between state, no smile, not even a twitch to betray his amusement. One second he was glaring at Steve, the next he was roaring with laughter.

Then the others started laughing as well.

"You are so weak," Natasha called out across the room. Steve blinked at Clint a couple of times before turning to look at the rest of the team, who were all either laughing uproariously or smirking (which was pretty much Natasha's version of a laugh).

"I know…" Clint gasped out between laughs, shaking his head, "but look at the puppy face!" He looked back at Steve, saw the look of utter confusion he gave him, and doubled up with laughter again.

"Who had two hours?" Bruce asked suddenly – he was still chuckling, and wiping tears away from his eyes.

"I did," said Natasha.

Bruce raised an eyebrow at her. "And you sent Clint into the kitchen at exactly the right time for Cap to follow him and confess all," he said knowingly.

Natasha shrugged. "Master spy," she said, sounding smug.

Clint was still laughing, but he sobered up enough to speak. "I would call you devious, but I've seen you do worse," he said. He picked up their beers and walked out from behind the bar and back over to the couch. "Also, I know you'd like it," he added with a grin as he handed her the beer.

Tony had just about managed to stop laughing by this point, and he shook his head at Bruce. "Yeah, we should have seen it coming," he said.

Steve had had enough. Not a single one of them was paying him the slightest bit of attention, and he was standing behind the bar feeling like a complete idiot.

"What the hell is going on?" He demanded, striding out from behind the counter and back over to the sitting area. This was clearly the wrong tactic, though, because as soon as they all looked at him they all dissolved into laughter again. Even Natasha chuckled. Actually chuckled.

Steve just stood there with his arms folded, waiting for them to finish. Eventually, Tony managed to get some words out.

"We had a bet going on how long it would take for your guilt to get the better of you and make you confess to Hawk about the kiss," he said, grinning delightedly.

Steve froze. "You… you had a bet?" He repeated weakly.

"Yep."

Steve looked round at their smug, grinning faces. "You were all in on it?"

"Uh-huh," said Tony.

"And Clint and I had a private bet that he couldn't get you to kiss him too," said Natasha.

"Admit it, I almost had you," Clint said, pointing his beer bottle at Steve. "You're not the first man I've seduced – I know the signs."

"But you cracked, just like I knew you would," Natasha said to him.

Clint shrugged. "The look on your face was _hilarious_," he said to Steve with a smirk.

Steve stared at Clint, who was looking perfectly cheerful and back to normal; at Natasha, who was smirking and looking unbearably smug; at Tony and Bruce, who were both grinning; and at Thor, who was still chuckling to himself.

Steve took a deep breath. "You are all such… _assholes_," he said.

This got another round of laughter, though a lot shorter than the previous ones. "Granted," Tony said after a few moments. "Come and sit back down so we can get on with the movie."

He pressed a button on the table top next to him and the movie started playing again, and once again the team's attention was drawn to it. Steve stood still for a couple more moments before walking back over to the couch and sitting down again.

Clint leant round Natasha and gave him a serious look. "Make sure you keep your hands to yourself, Cap," he said. "I'm kind of the jealous type."

Natasha swatted Clint's chest with the back of her hand and he sat back with a grin. Natasha looked over at Steve with a smirk, and when he scowled at her she just grinned at him and turned back to the movie. Steve shook his head and turned his attention to the movie as well. And if he felt a tug on the corners of his lips and felt lighter than he had for weeks, well… at least they were all too busy watching the movie to notice.

THE END.


End file.
